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This may or may not apply to you but from what I read in most articles, most guy seen enjoy playing as girls because they seem have more freedom wtih their personalities. I myself admit that I find that I could create more personalities with girl characters than with guys as the stereotype surrounding guys is that they need to be stoic or emotionless badasses. I am not sure if this is the number one reason but what do you think of this phenomenon?

Hmm, not for me, maybe. I tend to prefer playing as a guy, whatever the game is.

From what I saw, people playing as girl characters are most commonly found in MMO games (at least over here). They do that because they could trick other players by sweet talking or something like that so the target player would really think that it's a real girl behind that girl character. This trickery is done to ease the gameplay... like finding a hunting party, forming a relationship, etc. since guy players tend to be more helpful toward girl players so in MMO, guys like to pretend to be a girl.

Yeah, G.I.R.L.s are more common in MMOs, but it can be for other reasons, trickery aside:
1) Some games have exclusive male/female gear, so depending on class, sometimes females have it better.
2) Same as above for cash shop accessories.
3) Free attraction to your shop
4) Some just enjoy the illusion and play as girls for years, making up all kinds of brainless chat (like, I was at a party and got drunk and kissed another girl, omg what should I dooo!). Never really understood this one...

EDIT: As for me, I play male characters about 90% of the time, it just feels more right.

In games where you have to "create your character" such as MMO's I'm always male. (Even though I hardly play any games like that. ) The point of it is to make an avatar that represents yourself, so why create and play as something that's female when I'm clearly not?

Otherwise though, with any other kind of game like an adventure, fighting or JRPG, it doesn't really matter what gender I play as. Characters with their own identities aren't characters one can implement themselves into, considering they already have established personalities, traits and relationships. A lot of the time you're forced to play as a certain gender character whether you like it or not.

As for why others would play as a female character, I don't really know. Though I could imagine there are those weirdos out there who do it just cause they get a kick out of it.

The mechanics point in the previous post rings true too me. Also, for aesthetic purposes. I'm a fairly short and slim individual and dislike giant walking slabs of meat that is the general portrayal of manliness these days so generally I go the complete opposite and chose the girls I also like the lithe, agile and exotic look. Also, in RPG's (well the western ones like Baldurs Gate) they usually have the roles I liked played by either old men (Wizards) or gun-ho swarthy types and I liked to mix it up at times by playing a character that doesn't fit conventional norms (like a female DK tank in WoW, or half elf sorceress, or dark elf cleric-not-of-lloth-or-similar). I used to exclusively use male characters when younger, but it's almost a total reversal these days (male dwarfs are to awesome not to play - I think it's the beard).

However male characters in full on bulky power armor like from say WH 40k, or SC or whatever do look awesome and I don't have a problem with those. How awesome something looks is important to help identify with it. Generally if you don't have a choice about what you play the characters will look totally kick ass (more focus by the art department), but in an RPG it really depends on you which can go either way in dramatic fashion.

edit: Amg posts, thing with an MMO, when I started out I always referred to people by their characters gender even if I knew they were something different IRL - a hang over from RP to be sure. I also applied the 'no girls on the internet rule' until proven otherwise so never hit on anyone. Never made a big deal about my IRL gender - never really cared to - it still took two years for some people to come to grips that I was actually a guy, even though my gender pronoun when people talked to or about me changed in every other conversation. I never asked for anything either - still got some stuff given to me though. Usually from one guy, but it was more because he couldn't use it (he also new my real gender) I did return the favour when I got stuff I couldn't use either. We had one guy that went 4 years without telling anyone his real gender - he knew the brother of an IRL friend of mine in the same guild because they were involved with the band but wasn't in the band. After conversation my friend theorised it was one of the female groupies and left it at that. But they were actually male. They didn't ask for anything either, they came across as a fairly cold hearted person and I think guildies were scared that they'd lose their heads, so they were our raid leader naturally as any hard-ass should be.

I think it is just being attracted to the opposite sex, nothing more. Yeap, if a game allows me to choose between male and female, i always go for female. Especially if they have a skirt, and the camera adjustable...
If the game does let me choose, i don't really care either.

In games where you have to "create your character" such as MMO's I'm always male. (Even though I hardly play any games like that. ) The point of it is to make an avatar that represents yourself, so why create and play as something that's female when I'm clearly not?

This is the first time I've seen this said. I have never once in 9 years of playing MMOs ever thought or heard someone say their avatar represented themself. My avatar, whichever I'm playing at the time is just one of many characters that I made because I wanted to play it.

On topic now, I am much like Hat and Clogs. I don't like the way guys are all too often portrayed in RPGs so I tend to make a female instead. I'd probably say for every 4 or 5 females I play, probably 1 male character. Except in DA where i had 1 male and 1 female. Didn't feel like making more in that game. In Harvest Moon games I'm always a guy though.

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I was influenced by a certain group overflowing with madness and started trying to write a story. Please give it a try. Crashed into Fantasy

@Xacual
Yeah I've never really seen my character as a representation of myself. It's also a hang-over for me from EQ RP (even though I only occasionally did it and then mostly as my Guide character - male cleric DE), I make the character and then try invest myself into it. Try and think how it would be if I were that character, get inside their head and think like they would. I do this more in single player RPG's where you can make choices that affect the game, not so much in MMO's - particularly in the later game which is just loot driven - although I do like thinking up scenarios for my characters. Some would probably make amusing stories if i cared enough to write.

It's all just escapism.

side note: Did have a lot of fun on that guide character, wandering the game and talking with and helping people.

Since most RPGs are from 3rd person's view, do you prefer to stare at a male characters ass for long hours or a hot female's?

------ Paraphrasing a youtube comment on Tera online.

I'm not playing a game to stare at the characters' asses =_=

Personally I don't really care when it comes to fighters, but when it comes to RPG there's a disjointing feeling I get if I even try to play as a female character because one-way or the other, that character is my avatar- It represents who I am in the game world, and there's no way I see myself as a girl... Not in this lifetime and hopefully not in the next.

This is the first time I've seen this said. I have never once in 9 years of playing MMOs ever thought or heard someone say their avatar represented themself. My avatar, whichever I'm playing at the time is just one of many characters that I made because I wanted to play it.

Lol, so folks are completely missing the point of what a "custom avatar" is then?

Well MMO's aren't my kind of game I've hardly played any, so what do I know?

EDIT: Ah, thank you Chaos2Frozen. Glad to see someone who thinks like me.~

There's not really any logic to "why do guys play girls?" whining (or this thread) ... though it seems to pop up every year or so.

We might also ask: Why do humans play dwarves and orcs? Why do women design and play male characters? What am I saying if I create a large sentient carnivore plant as one of my characters? What is this "my character is me" delusion? Most players look *nothing* like their toons.

A large number of people LIKE TO DESIGN characters and play them out, personality and all. They are creating a story.

Now obviously.... some people just think females are more aesthetic (though setting "boobs to maximum" and naming the character an idiot name like "Ikandi" is saying something about the creator). And some people are playing the "wah, me female give me stuff"... which I'd LIKE to think no one falls for anymore but there's always a new idiot I guess.

I usually have characters of both genders and several species in a game. Its fun to design and roleplay different personalities for each. I try to stay "in character" all the time as each one. It really isn't any harder than that.